Missouri GOP enters redistricting fray ahead of midterm elections

Michael Macagnone and Mary Ellen McIntire, CQ-Roll Call on Sep 9, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The Missouri state House advanced a new congressional map Tuesday targeting the district of one of the state’s two Democrats, the latest escalation in tit-for-tat partisan gerrymandering in states ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

The 90-65 vote makes Missouri the second GOP-controlled state to advance a map targeting Democratic-held seats, after Texas’ legislature passed one earlier this summer aiming to make as many as five Democrats vulnerable. California’s legislature has advanced a retaliatory measure targeting five GOP-held seats, when last month it passed legislation to put a new map on the ballot this fall.

The Missouri House map now goes to the state Senate, which is expected to pass it and send it to Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe before the end of the week.

The map would split the Kansas City-area district currently held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, adding in rural areas currently represented by Republican Reps. Bob Onder and Mark Alford.

Cleaver said Tuesday during a news conference on Capitol Hill that he is currently running for reelection and that he expected lawsuits, as well as a potential initiative petition to reverse the redrawn map he called “monumentally unpopular.”

“So we’re going to do that and everything else that we can do to make sure that the people are not hurt further,” Cleaver said.

The state’s constitution allows for a potential ballot initiative, but it would require a fast turnaround to submit signatures from voters in congressional districts across the state within 90 days.

“We are at a moment where there are powers trying to place this nation into the 1950s. They’re trying to reverse the direction of the country,” Cleaver said.

To accommodate the changes, the new map also makes shifts among most of the state’s other Republican-held congressional districts.

State Rep. Dirk Deaton, the Republican sponsor of the new map, defended the plan as a “superior map to the map we currently have” during a speech on the chamber floor Tuesday. Deaton said it was “better or superior than the current map” the state has, noting it would be more compact than the current plan.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he doesn’t see a problem with the escalating gerrymandering wars, after the Supreme Court has given states free rein to redistrict as they see fit as long as they do not transgress on issues such as racial discrimination.

“I feel good about this. I defer to the governor and the legislature on the right way to draw the lines, because this is their purview, constitutionally. But if you’re asking me, would I like to have another Republican? Yeah, absolutely,” Hawley said.

Ken Martin, the Democratic National Committee chair, called the new map “corruption at its worst” in a statement, criticizing the state’s legislature for redistricting at the behest of President Donald Trump.

“No wonder Trump is trying to rig the game — he knows Republicans can’t win elections on their abysmal record. Democrats will continue to fight back every step of the way — and make no mistake, this fight in Missouri isn’t over,” the statement said.

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(Jessica Wehrman contributed to this report.)